We love Georgian shores so much

2011-10-20 11:39

On the decline of the holiday season the Georgian National Agency for Tourism suddenly realized that visiting foreigners may not afford the price requested by local firms. Of course, vacations in Sakartvelo aren't so expensive that the guests can't afford it at all.

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But the middlemen, involved in organizing tours, are playing a field, indemnifying all costs for "light" doing business in the Caucasian republic at the expense of overseas clients. A few days ago director of the National Agency of tourism Maya Sidamonidze revealed this open secret for herself and her compatriots - the travel agencies in Georgia have organized a banal "robbery" contrary to common sense, basic decency and the laws of the market. She got wake-up call from the tourist center of Bakuriani which recently began to recieve complains of Azerbaijanis.

After these complaints the Georgian officials ought to blush with shame because it's one thing to publish plans on attraction three million tourists a year, and quite another - to provide all of these people decent rest. And so it turns out that all the talk about Georgia's highly competitiveness compared to other Black Sea countries are converted into froth. Azerbaijanis say: it's prohibitively expensive to book vouchers in agencies because travel agencies openly jack up prices and take exorbitant commission. It's also too expensive to abandon their services and to reserve a hotel room because the Georgian hotels love to boast their "stars" and to make appropriate amendments to their price lists.

Maya Sidamonidze, precipitated by journalists, admitted: she has no information about the 100 percent mark-up for tourist services but she entirely agree with the Azeris that prices set up in Georgia for travelers' are "inadequate to their service". This verdict during the season was imposed in relation to the tourism industry more than once. For example, when the audit committee took off "stars" from the supposedly elite hotels in Adjara. At best, the hoteliers admitted that they simply can not provide this level of service to which the declared category commits them. At worst, the inspectors had to go to the conflict to protect the interests of consumers.